Rite Of Passage
by Pathwarden
Summary: An emolga from the wild and a magnemite from the provinces join together, hoping to start life anew and become a local guild hall's newest recruits.


Chapter One

Up in the trees, an emolga found a pear.

"Oh, there you are! You're so shiny, too," she murmured.

The modestly-sized rodent, youthful and cute, swishing her black tail about in a rare fit of happiness, worked up quite the appetite scavenging for food throughout the day. Her flaps had helped her to glide from branch to branch in the forest canopy since the early morning. As much as she'd rather stay home, such exploring proved more and more mandatory for her daily needs. Thankfully, after many hours of searching her hard work would soon pay off. A juicy, yellow fruit sat in her little paws and gave off a healthy luster. Her mouth watered as she stood upon that branch in great anticipation.

Before she could sink her teeth into the fruit, a worrying thought crossed her mind. At once she paused.

_Oh, wait! Maybe I shouldn't eat this in such a hurry? It's been getting harder and harder to find fruit._

She could hardly recall the last time she found a pear at all, nevermind one so fresh. It had been weeks. The dwindling of her food supply made it especially hard, as if some glutton kept beating her to the punch. The grumbling in her stomach uncomfortably reminded her of this fact, and yet all she did now was clutch her food with rising anxiety as she stared.

_What am I thinking?! There's no way I can take the time to enjoy this pear...I gotta eat this, fast as I can, and then fly back home. Back to my burrow. _

_Back where it's safe._

"Flow, no! If you eat too fast, you'll choke!"

The emolga suddenly squeezed her meal. Her little fingers sank beneath the fruit's skin as her eyes popped wide. She heard something she knew wasn't supposed to be there.

"Dad, I know what I'm doing," Flow whispered. She swallowed an upwelling of emotions just as she began to chew and swallow the first bite.

And then she felt that telltale brush of wind.

A voice from the inhabitants called out to her. "Look out, Flow! He's back!"

Flow's pear dropped from her paws as she shot away from the branch to take flight. One moment later, the branch Flow stood upon ripped right off the trunk as shards of wood snapped loudly from the lacerated bark. Claws slashed through the branch, ripping off bits of wood. The owner of those deadly claws greatly dwarfed the emolga as a sleek, metal-clad bird.

Flow's hunter screeched in frustration, the sound like the wail of grinding steel.

The little rodent landed on the branch of an adjacent tree and rushed down the trunk to the ground as the bird landed on a heavy branch not too far away and began to turn. She learned it was easier, but only barely, to hide from the opportunist amongst the shrubbery than to fly completely exposed along the branches.

_Shoot! My burrow's so far away, _Flow thought. She sped from bush to bush. Her eyes kept looking above for her hunter, who now carefully analyzed the woods for any sign of the emolga.

"Looks pretty bad, Flow," said a worried voice. "You didn't even get three mouthfuls of that pear, and now it's back. Looking to get a mouthful of you."

"I'll find someone to help me, and if that doesn't work I'll beat him home!" Flow forcefully whispered.

"That's not going to work every time! You need to defend yourself."

"I can't!"

"Yes you can."

"If you couldn't defend yourself, Papa, how can I?!"

Flow worked her way to the unassuming burrow of the fellow denizen that warned her earlier. The head of an unimposing, grey rodent, a minccino, poked out of the hole. His countenance wore an expression of sheer terror.

"Flow, I know what you want, but you can't come in here!" he whispered.

"Brush, come _on_. You just helped me a moment ago," Flow pleaded, her voice just as low.

Brush rapidly shook his head. "I've seen what happens to anyone trying to help you. They get _marked for death!"_

"But-" Flow cut off her sentence as her eyes widened at the sight of the swooping bird coming right for her. She leapt away from Brush's burrow as the minccino yelped and pulled his head back into the safe confines of his home. The claws of Flow's hunter barely missed their mark.

"C'aaaaaaw!" The steel bird's cry rang out as it rebounded off the trunk of a tree to take aim once more.

"Flow, I'm sorry!" Brush cried, "Get out of here while you can!"

In truth, Flow half-expected Brush to be too frightened of the steel bird to lend a paw in assistance. The body count that the emolga's hunter racked up now proved too great for him to ignore. More and more of the inhabitants had rejected Flow's pleas for shelter for that same reason. If Brush wouldn't let her take shelter, no one would.

As Flow's hunter swooped down a third time, the little rodent rushed right back up the trunk of a tree to evade him.

_No choice now but to head home!_

She ran off the tip of the highest branch and spread her flaps to glide away. Her hunter, seeing her small body take flight from tree to tree, flew right after her. He bided his time, waiting for a prime opportunity.

Flow, by now, had swooped low to the earth, for the hole the ground she called her home had finally come into sight. She lowered her trajectory as she aimed to dive-bomb right for the entrance, right to where that terrifying bird couldn't reach. Such an escape worked well in the past.

Alas, Flow knew better by now. The pains of hunger led to carelessness, and she caught herself just in time to dive downwards. Her body skidded to a stop along the ground. She felt a sharp blast of wind graze the very tips of her ears. They stung with the pain of lacerated skin.

Flow's eyes widened as she saw the impact of the hunter's attack, an invisible blade of rushing air, smash into the opening of her burrow. She gasped as the destruction caved in the hole with a sudden collapse of soil and rock.

"Noooo!" cried Flow. Her path to safety was gone, for she had nowhere else to run.

She spun around. At once her eyes fell upon the metallic bird. Sensing it had gained the upper hand, Flow's hunter pressed on with the attack. It flaunted its superiority in the air with one blast of razor wind after another, just to whittle Flow's energy down to nothing.

"No! Nooo! Stop it! Leave me alone!"

Flow screamed as she leapt to and fro, looking every which way. Her lungs burned from the exertion and her tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn't see clearly at all. She couldn't tell which direction to go anymore. All the while, the hunter's attacks kept nicking her, whether by the tops of her ears or by the tip of her tail. The world around her blurred as she flipped and rolled, unable to dodge the attacks in full.

"Don't just run! Fight back!" her father's voice pleaded.

"I can't!" Flow cried.

Flow's hunter honed in on her erratic evasions and took careful aim. The razor wind from above slashed right across the emolga's path, giving her such a fright that she lost her footing and fell hard upon her back. The air in her lungs shot right out as the sudden fall left her sprawled upon the ground. She desperately gasped for breath. She was exhausted and couldn't run.

The bird landed on the ground and started to walk ominously towards his mark.

Flow now looked up at the steel bird looming over her. Tears in her eyes began to swell as she saw its beak lift up, preparing to finish her off. Flow sobbed on and on. She shut her eyes as tightly as she possibly could, crying all alone as certain death drew near.

"LOOK OUT BELOOOOOOOOOW!"

A call from above stalled the steel bird's killing blow. It turned its head, looking for the source. It immediately spied a rocketing ball of metal shooting through the sky, bearing down upon the bird of prey like a cannonball. It recoiled at the sight.

_Klaaaaaaang!_ Metal ricocheted off metal as the impact's sound echoed throughout the woods. The predator, knocked clear off its feet, slid a short distance along the forest floor as a stunned heap of metal, while the ball lofted high into the air. The ball spun crazily all the while as gravity pulled its trajectory back down to earth.

"OW!"

By the time the ball landed with a heavy thud, Flow started to recover from her brush with death. She struggled to see through her wet, quivering eyes.

"H-Hello?" the emolga nervously called out. With a bit of struggling she managed to get back on her feet. She scanned the premises, unsure as to where that voice came from. No denizen of the woods she knew had a voice quite like the one she just heard. Her gaze soon fell upon the strange object that fell from the sky, now halfway buried in the forest floor.

What an alien sight that proved to be for the emolga. A body as hard as the predator's armored skin, perfectly round, and two very curvy branches of some sort, one of which was stuck deep in the ground. Other small protrusions poked out of the strange thing as well. Little metal pieces.

"Um..." Flow had no idea what to make of all of this.

"Gah! What a horrid start."

"Aah!" Flow jumped back a bit.

"I should've saved some energy for a softer landing! How reckless of me. I would be the laughingstock of all of Ironside if they ever heard of this," spoke the ball, "Oh! A local! Come, circle to the other side of me so I can get a good look at you. At the moment I...can't move."

Flow felt paralyzed. She held her paws to her mouth as she slowly summoned the courage to inch her way around.

At once she muffled a yelp of fright. _Oh dear god, that thing has one big, white eyeball_. That eye zeroed in on her almost immediately.

"What luck! A fellow electrician!" it cheered. "We just might salvage this trip. Almost makes me forget the pain of that impact just now."

It fell silent as it noticed that Flow wasn't talking.

"You've never met a magnemite before? Oh! I must be well outside the provinces. My name is Crag. What's yours?"

"Um...it's Flow," the emolga murmured.

"Such a graceful name for an electrician! Flow, can you tell me what exactly I bounced off of just now? I didn't get a good look."

"C'AAAAW!"

Flow never got the chance to respond. Her eyes popped as her gaze whipped towards the now-enraged predator close by.

"It was that skarmory I hit just now? Sorry! That collision was just an acci- Oh, god!"

Flow jumped fast from the skarmory's warpath as it rushed straight for the magnemite stuck in the ground. The bird's claws ripped it free immediately, only to pin it right back down to the earth with an onslaught of violent pecking. 

"OW! OW! Quit it! OW! Stop! OW! Stupid bird, I just polished!" Crag's pleading fell on deaf ears as the skarmory's beak struck again and again in a vain attempt to rip the magnemite wide open.

"I had my game right where I wanted, you heap of scrap!" the hunter yelled, still pecking all the while, "Her head would've been the perfect match to my skull collection, right along with her father's! I had her isolated, on the run, convinced she could do nothing to stop me. Her sheer stupidity would've made her my easiest trophy in years!"

Flow stood in utter shock. All this while, she had believed the bird to be a primal beast, incapable of more than predatory instincts. But no. It could talk. It could think. It purposely put on a relentless campaign of fear just to wear her down, all just for the thrill of killing her, not even for food. The thought sickened her.

_You monster!_ The very thought inflamed her mind and boiled her blood. Her paws squeezed tight into trembling fists as she glared at the skarmory, enraged.

"It's now or never, Flow," her father's voice whispered.

The emolga folded her arms tight to her chest.

"Let the energy build within your cheeks..."

Flow's cheeks visibly sparked with power.

"...Keep your gaze upon your target..."

Her eyes focused upon the skarmory. Her very stare called for death.

"...And then... you strike!"

After all the hell the little emolga just endured, she at last seized the course of her fate. Arcs of electricity leapt from her body as she screamed not in terror, but in pure catharsis.

"_Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"_

Her amplified attack struck the distracted skarmory with powerful, merciless electrocution. The electricity raced through the predator's whole was immediately set upon by violent, metal-clattering spasms.

"C-c-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aw!" The would-be hunter flailed wildly as it fell to the ground with intense pain. Desperate to escape the fresh hell Flow unleashed, he flapped his wings wildly to get off the ground and take flight. Flow covered her face from the sudden gust of wind, forced to stop the onslaught as the skarmory fled up past the forest canopy and into the open sky. In mere seconds he was gone.

As Flow's attack ceased, she could barely stand. The thundershock left her drained, while it left the skarmory no more than a collapsed husk of metal. The bird was sprawled upon its back.

A moment of silence followed. Crag cracked his eye open to see what had caused the pecking to stop. The sight of the fainted hunter visibly jolted the magnemite with a leap of spirit. It suddenly spun upwards to float a short distance from the ground.

"Wonderful!" Crag exclaimed. The magnets adhered to the sides of its spherical body flapped upwards as if to cheer. The screws upon its body idly twisted left and right. "Ooh! Flow, never in my existence have I witnessed such strength from an electrician! Your diminutive size is inversely proportional to your power! I am moved!"

Crag looked at Flow a bit more closely. "Actually, you might be a bit bigger than me. Details!"

At that moment, Crag realized that Flow wasn't listening.

"Flow? Is everything alright?" it asked.

The emolga, all this time, had stared quietly at the unconscious skarmory before her. Her body trembled all over as her heart and mind sank with epiphany.

"I stopped him, just like that. Just like that! I...I could've done that in the first place, instead of running!"

Flow dropped hard to the ground.

"_Dad!"_

She wailed angrily as she started to furiously pound the earth, unable to tolerate such raw, unmistakable failure. Her forepaws turned sore, as her energy withered away and her wails diminished into pathetic whines. She soon collapsed and muffled her cries by burying her face in the soil, as the rest of her writhed in a mess of blood, sweat, and tears.

"...Flow?" Crag meekly inquired.

"What's done is done, Flow," Papa's voice told her.

"Papa, I didn't want you to go. Come back to me. Please!" Flow pleaded. She rolled upon her back, her tear-stained face now staring up towards the sky. Dirt and dried leaves clung to the quivering, wet fur. She reached out with one paw, her heart aching for her absent father.

Crag, struck dumb by the unfolding scene, quietly pieced together what happened before it had arrived. Its magnets wilted down from the sudden sadness that loomed over its mind.

_How horrible,_ Crag thought._ I can't just float here and let a fellow electrician fall into such insulation!_

The magnemite zipped straight for the emolga. Flow's eyes popped with surprise, for in her breakdown she forgot Crag was even close by. It made its presence quite known as it looked straight down and hovered right above her.

"Flow!" Crag began, demanding her attention, "It's atrocious what you've just been through. But don't give in, not now. There's a way for you to pick up the pieces. Tell me, do you know of the provinces?"

Flow whispered very quietly, with her paws to her mouth, "No...how will those help me?"

"It's where people go to make better lives for themselves, Flow," Crag stated, "And each province is protected by the guild to guard against such horror as yours. I was on my way to join that guild at their hall in Land's End."

Crag sighed. "I fell quite short, however."

Crag pressed on. "But no matter! We've been pulled together like distant forces rushing to meet as one. I ask of you, Flow: Will you join me?"

"What?" Flow's heart raced a little. Crag acted quite forward with her.

"Will you leave behind the wild and join the Guild with me?" Crag clarified, "I owe you my life, Flow. The least I can do is accept you as my partner."

The emolga rose up. As she stood on two feet, her beady eyes lingered. She tapped her paws nervously together and shuffled apprehensively in place. Her black tail gently swept back and forth along the ground. In spite of all that just transpired, she somehow carried herself like the innocent girl she used to be.

"Crag, I don't know..." she answered softly.

"What's wrong? I swear that everything I told you is true," Crag assured.

"It's not you. It's...well, this forest is all I've ever known."

Flow paused for a moment, as if listening, or lost in thought. "But, Dad..."

"Dad?" repeated the magnemite. The word made him uneasy.

Flow gazed forward, with a clenched lower lip. "There's...somewhere i have to go before we leave."

"Oh? But where?" Crag asked.

"Just follow me, okay? It won't be long."

Flow took off up the trunk of a tree. Like many times before, she ran across a high branch in the canopy and spread her flaps to take flight. She glided from tree to tree, most likely for the last time in these woods, as she rushed towards one last destination.

"H-hey! Flow, wait for me!" Crag called after her. With a burst of electrical sparks, it took off right after her, keeping up with her flight by its powers of levitation, just barely.

"Can you tell me where we're going?" Crag called to her, asking curiously.

"You'll see very soon!" Flow called back.

Thankfully for Crag, Flow arrived in a short time. With a gentle drop she landed back on the earth upon her feet and came to a stop. Crag caught up with the emolga and came to a stop as well by her side. As it lowered its body to Flow's eye-level, it hovered a very short distance from the ground.

As Crag's eye finally looked upon what Flow had rushed to visit, its voice turned very quiet.

"What are...those things?" asked the magnemite.

In front of Crag and Flow there laid two weathered mounds of heavily packed soil. Said mounds had no marks. Only Flow knew of what lied in them.

"Crag...this is my family," Flow said, slowly and solemnly.

If Crag had an eyebrow it would raise up with serious concern. He dared not to prod.

Flow's sad, tear-stained eyes stared towards the shallow graves. "Mama had passed away before I came out of my egg, so Papa took care of me. He told me once, 'When my time comes I want to be buried next to her so that we can be together.' Isn't that right, Dad?"

Flow's form grew rigid. Her breaths became a little erratic as she confronted the graves. An uneasy pause followed.

"...Dad, you were…"

"You were ripped apart-" she squeaked out, "and left open on the ground. You know I couldn't just leave you there. I made your wish true with my own two paws." She gestured forward with her paw, to no one.

"What?" Crag's eye widened at the visual Flow just described. "Oh, Flow, I had no idea! I'm so, so sorry."

Flow turned a little. "It's okay, Crag. They get to rest together now, but...there's nothing left for me here, except to say my goodbyes."

The emolga inched in closer. Crag looked on quietly as he gave Flow her moment. She placed a paw on each grave.

"Mom, Dad, I've got to go. Everyone I knew here is gone. But Crag knows a place where I can start over. Some place called a "guild." I have no idea what that is, but it sounds better than being alone out here.

"I promise when I get the chance I'll visit you both again."

Flow stepped away from the graves. "So long."

After taking a few more steps, Flow turned to Crag. She breathed easy before the magnemite, in spite of still being a mess from her recent ordeal.

"Flow?"

The emolga heard a meek voice behind the magnemite. Both of them turned to see who it might be. A certain minccino stood before them, teary and burdened with heavy guilt.

"Brush? What are you doing here?" Flow asked.

"Is it true you're going to leave?" Brush asked in turn, "Is it true...that there's nothing left for you here?"

Flow frowned. "Brush...I got people killed, until everyone shunned me when I needed them most...including you. It's better that I go."

Crag stayed quiet. He knew better than to interject on something so personal, even as he watch Brush's heart broke quite visibly. The minccino turned and ran off as he broke out with inconsolable sobbing.

"Wait, Brush!" Flow reached out to him, but he was already gone.

Flow dropped her face into her palms. _Maybe the bird was right for calling me stupid,_ she thought, as she fought to suppress another burst of emotion. She repeatedly assured herself that Brush will be okay, better off without her. She took in one deep breath after another.

Finally, she wiped away her tears. She turned her attention back to Crag.

"I'm ready to go, Crag. There's nothing in my burrow that I need. It's all just caved-in dirt now. Where did you say we were going?"

"Oh! To the Land's End province, Flow. The map I referenced showed it was south-west of Ironside. If my direction was right, these woods should be very close to it!" Crag answered, grateful they could get back to business.

Flow cocked her head. "Crag, what do you mean? Do you mean where the sun rises, or sets?"

"Uuuuuuuuh, somewhat towards where the sun sets! I think? Yes, that's it," Crag assured, "And don't worry. With a wonderful electrician like yourself to charge me up, we'll be able to get to that province in no time."

Flow blinked, even more perplexed. "I'm sorry, Crag. I don't follow at all. Um...you don't mean how you got _here_, do you?"

"Oh, no no no no no! This new approach will be far safer, I assure you!" Crag proclaimed, "All you have to do is climb up onto me, grab hold of my top screw, and give me a solid shock of your electricity. I'll convert the boost into a source of power that'll levitate the both of us high enough to stay out of harm's way. We'll go so high we'll be well above the trees, and Land's End will be right in our view! With you on board as my portable power source, I'll be sure to get the both of us there safely, in a jiffy, and with no crash landings."

Crag noticed right away that the blood in Flow's face drained out almost immediately.

"Oh, don't be like that! I've done this at least once before, so I'm practically a professional!" Crag assured. "Now then, get on my back and grab hold of my screw."

Crag turned and lowered its round, metal body all the way to the ground. It waited now for Flow to get on board. "Let's get going, Flow!"

The little rodent bit her upper lip. "Crag...I've never been above the trees," she said, as she cautiously slid her stomach over Crag's metal exterior and wrapped her paws around the top screw, "Promise me you'll take it easy, okay?"

"No problem, Flow!" Crag declared. Its magnets slid up to the emolga's sides in an effort to keep her steady. "Now, give me a good shock."

Flow looked down incredulously at her ride. "Are you _sure_ about this?"

"Sure, I'm sure!" Crag chirped.

Flow took in one deep breath, and then exhaled. Her paws clenched Crag's screw tightly as she gave Crag a quick, solid jolt.

"Whoa!" Crag exclaimed.

"Ach! Did I just hurt you? I'm sorry," Flow hastily apologized.

"No, not at all. I've not felt a charge that awesome in years!" Crag acclaimed. "I need more power, though. Do it again."

"Um, okay?" Flow zapped Crag yet again.

"Fantastic! Yes! That'll be a good start for our trip," Crag exclaimed, "Come on, Flow! Let's flyyyyyyyy!"

Flow grabbed hold as Crag's levitation suddenly shot both of them straight up, up, up towards the sky. They shot right through the canopy in less than a second. Crag's mind seemed so up in the clouds that it raced to literally get there.

"AAAAAAAAAAH! Crag, too fast! Too fast!" Warned Flow. She shut her eyes tightly, afraid she'd look down and flip out over their rapidly gaining height. She already felt light-headed and dared not risk fainting.

Crag came to a sudden stop in mid-air. Thankfully, he stopped at several thousand feet, well beneath the clouds. "Oh, sorry!" it apologized, "Keep shocking me and I should be able to maintain our flight."

"Ok-k-kay!" Flow stammered. She still dared not to pry her eyes open as she fed Crag another jolt.

"Yes! Just like that," Crag commended. "Now...it's actually hard for me to see right now, since I'm tilted straight towards the ground to carry you. Look around. Do you see the fort?"

"Do I have to open my eyes?!" Flow blurted.

"Yes, and do it quickly. The sooner we go on our way, the better!"

The emolga riding precariously atop the high-floating magnemite summoned great courage to gaze into the open sky. She audibly gasped and squeezed Crag's screw even tighter.

"Um! I see...lots and lots of trees, really, really, really far down...I never knew the forest was so big," she described, suddenly filled with awe, "And there's...a huge...lake?! Oh, wow!"

"That would be the ocean. No sight of the fort?" Crag prodded.

Flow turned her head, to the left and to the right. She honestly didn't know what Crag meant, but didn't want to admit it so openly. But, as she looked around and soaked in the sights of the land, she couldn't help but admire how beautiful everything was, in such sharp contrast to the ugliness she witnessed on the ground.

"Crag, I can't see it," Flow informed.

"That's okay! If we follow along the ocean we'll get there," Crag replied.

"Don't go too fast!" Flow insisted.

"No problem. Another jolt, please!"

Crag's appetite for electricity started to annoy Flow. She puffed her cheeks a bit with a groan as she jolted the magnemite yet again.

"Wooooo!" Crag, high on a power boost, set course for the nearby province. "To Land's End we gooooo!"

Flow shut her eyes yet again as she endured one of the worst trips of her life. "I said not too faaaaast!"

Chapter Two

Flow stared at her right paw with a frown.

"Crag, did I have to dip my paw in that gross, black stuff of theirs?"

"That's ink, Flow, and yes!" the magnemite answered back in a chirpy tone, the tips of his magnets similarly dyed, "How else were you going to register?"

Dusk began to darken the sky by the time Flow and Crag had arrived. They had landed safely as Crag promised they would, approached the gates, endured a lengthy, bureaucratic chat with the gatekeeper, and rushed through a crash course on civics in order to solemnly swear to uphold the "Pillars of Prosperity," and finally stamped their handprints on important-looking paper in order to seal the deal. Flow barely kept up with the whole process and, before she knew it was over, a cotton purse and a map was nearly tossed to her, right before the traveling pair were implored to move right along.

As Flow pulled her attention away from her messy paw, concerns over cleanliness stopped dead in their tracks as her gaze fell upon the Land's End province. She stood in place, her mouth hanging open with awe. Her old, familiar surroundings of the woods had disappeared behind her. In front of her laid streets carved out of an old, weathered, rocky mountainside. Along those streets stood numerous buildings of stone and mortar and archway doors, standing many feet tall over Flow's little head. But what stood out to her most were the people. So many people! They walked openly along the streets, greeted each other, even engaged in spirited conversations. Some of them rushed from building to building, hurrying along with last-minute errands, while others seemed ready to chat the whole night away. So many people in one place living out so many different lives filled Flow's round ears with a noisy, sleepless ambience far louder than any night in the forest.

"Flow, don't drop that map of yours. We need it!" Crag gently warned.

"Ah!" Flow caught herself from her daze. She renewed her grip on the map and held it right up for the both of them to view. "Um, this tells us where to go, right?"

"That's right! And we want to head straight for the Land's End guild hall. Just one problem, though."

"Um, problem?"

"Yes. You are most definitely holding the map upside-down."

Flow burned red in the cheeks. "Crag, it's the first time I've ever seen one."

"Not an issue! But can you first turn the map rightside-up?"

Flow slided her paws along the map's edges. "Like this?"

"Yes, perfect! Oh, I see! I see it now! We're here, and we want to be there, so if we go this way, we'll be right at the doors of the guild hall in about ten minute's time."

"Uuuum, yeah!" Flow nodded. "Uh, where is 'here'?"

Crag poked at the map with the tip of one magnet. "_This _is 'here' and _that_ is where we're going. That tall fortress off in the distance, close to the cliffs. Come on, Flow, let's enjoy a stroll."

Crag hovered onward as Flow sprung into a fairly fast walk right after him.

"Stick close to me, Flow," Crag instructed.

Easier said than done. Crag had the convenience of hovering over most of the heads of the diverse populace found within Land's End. Flow braved a jungle of numerous strangers walking past her way.

"Good evening, emolga!" greeted one such stranger passing by.

Flow stumbled to greet back as she walked on. "G-Good evening!"

Her big ears heard whispers as they continued on down the streets. Turned out the emolga and magnemite stood out like tourists.

"An emolga and magnemite together? Sounds like the start of a bar joke."

"Aw, she's cute."

"Are they here for the guild job?"

"I could use that floating screwball."

Flow bit her lower lip and walked faster. All this attention rushed blood to her yellow cheeks.

"Crag, you said the big fortress is where we're going, right?" Flow asked.

The magnemite turned and floated backwards as he looked down to his partner. "Yes, that's right."

"I'm going to try to get there faster, okay?"

"Hmm? How do you mean?"

Flow rolled up the map and stuffed it into the coin purse slung over her shoulder. "Take this for me first, okay?"

"Um, alright!" Crag came down to Flow's level. In just a moment the purse was slung around his top-most screw.

"Thank you," Flow said gratefully. In the very next second she rushed up the side of the nearest, tallest building.

"Flow?!" Crag's eyes popped wide, as did most of the surrounding inhabitants.

"Wow, she's a climber!" exclaimed one of the pedestrians.

Flow paid no more attention to them. Once she reached the roof of the building, she scouted for launch points leading to the fortress Crag had described. Her adept skill in gliding adapted surprisingly quickly to the city. The irregular heights of the rooftops provided many spots to leap off and land upon, at least up to a point.

_They're not much different from my trees, _Flow thought, _Here goes!_

"Flow, wait for meeee!" Crag took off right after her. Emolga and magnemite flew together as a pair, eschewing the labyrinth of the province streets for the rooftops and the dark, open sky. Heads turned and looked up towards them, wondering why they zig-zagged through the air from building to building instead of walking like the rest of them. What was the big hurry, they collectively thought.

In a matter of minutes, Flow finally came back down to earth as her feet landed at the base of an incline. A steep, stone pathway lead straight up to Crag and Flow's destination. At this point she ran out of buildings to help her glide. The rest of the trip had to be on foot.

"Oh, that was so much faster than walking around in that maze!" Flow proclaimed happily.

Crag sighed beside her. "I'm honestly surprised we weren't arrested. We were going from roof to roof, doing quite a bit of trespassing."

Flow patted Crag on the top as she reclaimed the coin purse from him. "Come on, Crag, lighten up. We got right where you wanted us to go, to that...big, scary building on the cliffside."

As Flow got a better look at the guildhall up the stony hill, her voice dropped to a very soft tone.

"Um...what do we do now?" She asked Crag.

"Oh, we go right in and declare our intent to join the guild. The guildmaster will want to talk to us. Uh, think of her like the boss of this place. She's responsible for all of Land's End."

"Okay."

Forced to walk the rest of the way, Flow felt quite vulnerable. If Crag could approach such an intimidating place unphased, however, she refused to let cold feet stop her now. She followed the magnemite to the tall, imposing doors of the guild hall. They appeared firmly shut.

"Oh, that looks heavy. Well, it wouldn't be a door for a guild hall if it was light as cottonees," Crag observed.

"Are they even home?" Flow asked. She pressed one paw on the door.

"Always! We just have to give a solid push. Hmm."

Crag brought his magnets close to the inner edge of one of the doors. He felt the familiar tug of metal snap his body forward. "Ah, an excellent grip."

"I'll push below you, then," Flow confirmed. She hurried in position.

"Together on three," Crag instructed.

"Three!" Flow proclaimed.

"That's not h- huuuuuuuuuuurgh!"

Flow and Crag together swung one of the doors of the gate wide open with a vigorous push. Flow stumbled forward as the door gave way. Crag got dragged right along with the door. With a strong yank he pulled himself free from the powerful draw of his magnetism. Through such efforts they finally entered the guild hall's main lobby.

The lobby was a wide, open space, with a floor made of stone swept clean on a daily basis. People inside carried out their business in a matter noticeably different from the pedestrians outside. They were more like soldiers. They wore an assortment of neckerchiefs, armbands, tail-bands too, accessories to denote their duty and profession. Some browsed job postings on a sizable message board of official declarations, pleas for assistance, and offerings of pay. Others, worn from the day's work, seemed content to chat the night away. Over all their heads stood a massive clock, as if to ensure no one in the lobby could excuse not knowing the time. The daily tasks of guild work called for great efficiency and little waste.

"Ah, so these are the guild members," Crag observed, floating next to Flow. "If we're fortunate enough we'll be working right alongside them."

"Can I help you?"

Flow and Crag turned towards a floating, red-eyed ghost, covered in a mask resembling a skull. Flow gasped at the sight and covered her mouth.

"Crag, there's a talking skull in front of us," she whispered in panic through her paws.

"Rude," remarked the duskull, "I am as much a person as your friend."

Crag laughed nervously. "So sorry, Flow just immigrated. We're here to apply for guild membership. Is the guildmaster available?"

"Guildmaster Svelte would be in her office, reviewing the daily reports. Wait here. I will ask her if she will see you now."

"Will do!" Crag acknowledged.

As the duskull floated away, Crag turned to Flow. "Careful how you react around here," he warned, "That could've cost us."

"It was a ghost with a big, glowing eye and a skull mask!" Flow protested, her tone still hushed.

"I'm a floating metal ball with magnets and screws. What's your point?" Crag rebutted.

Flow buried her face in her paws and groaned. "I'm sorry. So much of this is new to me."

"It's okay, you'll learn quick! I'm sure of it," Crag assured.

By that point, the duskull had returned. "Come, you two. Guildmaster Svelte was actually expecting you."

"Splendid! Come along, Flow!" Crag cheered.

Flow bit her tongue to keep from further embarrassing herself. She quietly followed her partner and the duskull through the main lobby. Beneath the giant clock and behind a nearby pillar stood a modest door well-hidden from casual view.

"You two go right in. I must tend to other things," Duskull instructed. Again he floated off.

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Crag whispered to Flow. "After so much traveling, our chance is finally here. Agh, I must calm down. I have to think about what I'll say to her. Flow, you better think about it too!"

A feminine, authoritative voice sighed at them through the door.

"Are you two coming in or not?"

"Oh! Quickly, Flow!" Crag ordered.

The sudden pressure to get on with things sped up Flow's movement as she pressed her weight right upon the door to the guildmaster's office. It swung wide open and with far less effort than the main gate.

Flow petrified. Ahead of her, curled up in front of a desk stacked with reams of hastily scribbled paper, lied a giant, green snake with pointed ears. A serperior. Flow's instincts screamed to either fry the reptile or flee right back out the door, but before she could act on either action Crag had floated right on ahead of her.

"So sorry, Guildmaster Svelte! It's all my fault," Crag apologized.

_That is the Guildmaster?! _Flow could barely believe it. Her instincts immediately assumed the magnemite had laid a trap of sorts.

"You at least saved me the hassle of having to arrest you. The residents started speculating that the two of you were bandits, even possibly assassins. An idiotic claim. Assassins are never so conspicuous."

Crag laughed nervously. "We were just eager to get here to apply to your guild. Right, Flow?"

Crag turned. He noticed right away that Flow had yet to move a muscle.

"Oh! She's got first-time jitters," Crag observed, "Hang on, I'll fetch her,"

Crag floated over Flow's head and pressed the back of his round body to her spine. "Come on, Flow, let's chat with the Guildmaster," Crag instructed. Crag's body pushed Flow like a dead weight as her feet slid across the floor. The guildmaster looked on, unamused, as the two soon were side-by-side and just a few feet from her desk. Flow's head turned up high to the guildmaster's face, her gaze like a deer in headlights. Crag, however, floated right at the serperior's eye-level.

Svelte extended a round-tipped vine from the side of her body and pointed it at the pair before her. "You are Crag, and you are Flow, correct?"

"Yes, that's right," Crag confirmed.

Flow nodded quietly. She swallowed a knot in her throat.

"You two are already applying together as a team, so let's not waste time. You each have a minute to explain to me why you want to join my guild. Crag, you go first, and be quick about it," commanded the guildmaster.

"Me? Oh, yes! Right away," Crag confirmed. He sped up the pace of his words in order to meet Svelte's demands:

"Over at Ironside where I grew up I would do nothing but mine metal all day and and I wanted to do more than just hard labor for our society so I woke up one day and decided 'Yes, I'll apply to the guild and do something I can be proud of' but Ironside had no vacancies and no one wanted to travel to Land's End with me. So I set out on my own hoping I'd find a partner in your province to join me and I tried to take an express route, but I messed up and landed in the middle of the woods. I ran into Flow and we ended up saving each other's lives! She needed a new start so I brought her here to help her do just that and if I can accomplish so much on my own imagine what I could do as a member of your guild with Flow as my partner!"

"I said you had a minute, Crag, not thirty seconds," Svelte criticized.

"Oh, so sorry," Crag hastily apologized.

"Your reasoning comes off as a desire to inflate your ego. I suspect you don't quite appreciate how dangerous working in the guild can be. How do I know you will not desert me the moment it gets rough for you?" Svelte further observed.

Crag was briefly struck dumb. "Guildmaster Svelte...if I wanted a safer job I would've stayed in the mines. I wouldn't travel so far if I wasn't ready to face such danger. I already did so just trying to get here."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm but you obviously didn't think things through. Your application is off to a very bad start. That's enough time for you. It's Flow's turn," Svelte stated, aiming to keep things going. "Now is the time to speak, Flow. If you can't make up for Crag's shortcomings I have to reject you on the spot."

"Wh-what?" Crag stammered.

"I said it is Flow's turn. Be quiet, Crag," Svelte ordered.

Crag hushed, but noticeably fretted in place. His magnets and screws twisted erratically. The magnemite would be back at square one if the emolga couldn't find the courage to speak. He hadn't even thought of possible failure until now. Where would the two of them even go? Neither Flow or Crag had any real support to fall back on. They'd be at the mercy of the province.

Flow struggled long and hard to find the words she wanted to say. Svelte's scrutinizing gaze, however, kept Flow's tongue still.

"You're running out of time, Flow," Svelte warned, "State your reasons, or leave with your friend."

The pressure on Flow rose quickly. Too quickly. Flow trembled as her paralysis gave way to a dramatic boil of self-loathing, shame, and anger. Those emotions coursed through her mind and body with such potency that she shattered her silence with a single, erupting proclamation:

"_I hate being afraid!"_

Crag recoiled. Svelte raised a curious brow.

Flow's voice fell down into a solemn, pained whisper. "My father died because I was afraid and didn't believe in my own strength. I hate myself for it."

Svelte stared at Flow. The guildmaster faced a troublesome conundrum. "Flow...is it more strength you seek, or is atonement what you want?" she asked.

"It's both," Flow answered. Her eyes began to water. "You said working for a guild is dangerous. I want to learn to face that danger instead of cowering like some little girl. I'll stop being afraid then, wouldn't I?"

"Flow...you may not have a healthy understanding of fear," Svelte reluctantly observed, "It's not unreasonable for the weak to fear the strong. It's part of the guild's duty to protect the weak among us. Joining the guild can give you strength, but you also have to bring strength of your own. Be honest to yourself: Do you truly have any strength to give?"

"I can glide through the air really well, and I know now that I can fight, " Flow stated, "I can help those who can't help themselves. If I do that, they won't have to suffer like I did. If you let Crag and I into the guild, we'll do all we can to make the world safer for everyone."

Silence fell upon the room. Crag's eye looked back and forth between the emolga and serperior, paranoid and unsure how Svelte was reacting to such words. The guildmaster had looked upon Flow with no ascertainable expression just moments before, but now stared at the rodent incredulously.

"I think my minute is up," Flow observed.

"That it is," Svelte confirmed with a sigh. She opted not to dig any deeper. "Flow, Crag, I am on the fence as far as your application is concerned. However, more promising candidates than yourselves have already failed spectacularly. I will give you two a chance. I am going to have you both stay in the barracks for the night. We have a vacant room. If you pass the test tomorrow morning, you'll have a place to stay here in the guild hall, and all the responsibilities that come with living here. If you fail, one night here is all you will get from me."

Crag felt a great weight lift off of him. "Oh, splendid! Thank you so much for giving us a chance, Guildmaster Svelte!"

"Thank you," Flow murmured. She wiped her eyes.

Flow became quiet for a very long time.

She said nothing as the duskull arrived once more to direct the two to their room for the night. Crag and the duskull exchanged pleasantries, but she didn't join in. She sank into the room's comforts as Crag chose his pillow bed and she settled upon hers. When the duskull dropped off dinner, the occasion elicited a gentle, sincere word of thanks from her. She ate a mere morsel out of the handful of berries on a plate given to her. She left the meal on the floor as night settled in and the room grew dark.

Such ongoing silence left Crag unnerved. He peered over from his bed as Flow laid on her back and stared towards the ceiling.

"Flow...are you going to be okay?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, Crag. I will be," she assured. Her meek tone suggested otherwise.

"Flow, how do I put this? I, uh...owe you an apology. I took for granted how troubled you were," Crag admitted, "I feel like I used you."

"Don't apologize," Flow told him. "I needed to get out of those woods."

"Well, if you say so," Crag acknowledged. "Just make sure you get a good night's sleep and eat the rest of those berries for breakfast. We have to do our best for the guildmaster tomorrow."

"Well, it's either that or I just sulk in a corner, right?"

"Flow! Please don't joke about such suffering."

"Don't worry, Crag. I will do my best. I promise."

"Um...alright. Glad to hear it. Flow, you have a good night."

Crag rolled his body to lie right upon his eye. Flow turned to one side and closed her eyes in turn.

"You too, Crag."

Chapter Three

Crag rocked to and fro upon a stone bench that stood along the edge of a busy street beneath a clear, blue sky. Flow slumped down beside him. The emolga, wearing a white cloth around her neck stained by the dirt and sweat of relentless labor, felt so drained that she was on the verge of passing out. Crag, worn but overly alert, suffered too much panic to even consider passing out.

"At this rate, we'll never make it!" Crag fretted to his partner. "I must double-check. Flow, can you show me the report card again?"

Flow groaned. "Didn't you just look a short time ago?"

"I still must be absolutely sure!" Crag insisted.

"Okay, okay. I understand." Flow reached into the messenger bag worn around her person, one of the items lent by Svelte for the day's test. She hadn't taken it off since that morning. Its brown cotton did a much better job hiding the mess upon its surface. From inside she withdrew the report card, a piece of paper she couldn't read but was entrusted to carry since Crag could read it effortlessly but had no real means to hold it up. In light of this, Flow outstretched her arms to hold the report card right by Crag's eye.

Crag steadied his balance. "Do you mind if I read it aloud for you again?"

Flow sighed. "I don't like being reminded of how little I know, Crag. But I don't like being in the dark, either."

"So that's a no?"

"Go ahead."

"Okay, will do," Crag confirmed. He started in earnest. "Team Name: _Ironwoods_. A bunch of legalese, and...ah, here we are. Grades. You don't need to review the full details of every task, correct?"

"Of course not. I remember them all," Flow confirmed, "We searched high and low for a lost basket that was at home the whole time, went gathering food from a 'market' to carry half across the city, scrubbed the stone on the ground while the sun baked us, squished berries into drinks to give to jerks who wouldn't stop making lewd remarks, and babysat some kids who harassed you for having no arms or legs."

"Not the best day," Crag admitted.

"And how were we graded putting up with all of that?" Flow asked.

"C, B, C, C, C."

"Tell me again: Are those good grades?"

"No, just average! In Svelte's view they might be downright bad," Crag warned, the panic in his tone increasing as he spoke. "We're not really impressing anyone in the city today, which means we can't impress Svelte, which means our chance to join the guild is withering away by the hour!"

Flow leaned over to Crag and placed a paw atop his metallic brow. "Crag, please. You need to relax. Honestly, all of that is nothing compared to living out in the woods. It's really just busywork. If they care about it so much, couldn't we just do more of it? That'd make Svelte happy, wouldn't it?"

"Well, I suppose," Crag agreed reluctantly, "But it'd look really good for us if we got to do something for the guild that really impresses and really mattered. Something big! Something important. Something that at least doesn't remind me of my old job in Ironside."

Flow rubbed Crag's brow consolingly. "There, there. It'll happen sooner or later."

Flow rolled up the report card and put it away back into her messenger bag. "Let's find a place where we can bathe. I feel grimier than I can bear."

"Wait! You two! You're with the guild, aren't you?"

A well-groomed feline with oversized ears and a plush neckpiece quickly approached and stopped right in front of them. She huffed with short breath as her eyes nearly welled with tears.

"Please help me!" She begged.

The two of them straightened up with new-found alertness. "Y-yes, we're with the guild!" Crag stated, "What happened, delcatty?"

"It's a nightmare!" the delcatty explained. She hung her head with great shame. "My daughter got very upset with me and ran away. She threatened to to climb the fortress as high as she could, just so she could be somewhere alone and far from her mother. I can't find her anywhere, so I'm terrified she could be scaling the walls as we speak. But the guild members out on patrol won't believe me because she's just a little skitty!"

She looked back up to them, crying. "Even if I'm wrong, my daughter's still missing! Please, won't you at least check for me?"

Flow rose up to her feet upon the bench in great haste. "Go to the fortress. Team Ironwoods will check for you," she instructed. She immediately hopped onto Crag and grabbed his top screw from behind him. "Let's go!"

"Roger that!" Crag acknowledged.

A flicker of hope lit up in the delcatty's eyes. "Th-thank you!" She stammered. She ran off right away towards the fortress.

Flow gave Crag a quick zap. In a matter of seconds, the magnemite launched few hundred feet into the air, leaving the labyrinth of the city streets behind. He rushed along towards the fortress, taking Flow along for the ride.

"Crag, do you know what a skitty looks like?" Flow asked.

"Oh, not too much different from her mother!" Crag answered, "Tinier body, nubby legs, a bulbous head, a far lighter color in the pelt, and the neckpiece has yet to grow in. We'll know it's the delcatty's daughter if we see her."

"If?"

"Well, I can see why the guards doubted the delcatty. A skitty barely has legs for climbing."

The two of them arrived, airborne, above the plateau leading to the fortress. Flow peered down high above as she shaded her gaze from the sun with one paw over her brow. From what she saw, everything appeared normal.

"I don't see anything that looks like a skitty from here," Flow reported, "Crag, why don't we circle around the back?"

Crag and Flow hovered along in a wide radius around the guild's fortress. Crag strafed as he moved in order to keep their view upon that fortress at all times. Just as they approached the back, Flow suddenly cringed.

"Oooow!" She held her brow as a sharp pain pierced through her head.

"Flow, what's wrong?!" Crag hurried to ask.

"K-Keep going, Crag. It's just some headache from out of nowhere," Flow responded. She seized Crag's screw with a tighter grip as she fought through the pain in her head that lingered. "Do you see anyone at all back there?"

Crag came to an immediate stop.

"Ack! Situation! We got a situation!" He blurted.

Flow managed to gather her bearings in time to see what sparked her partner's panic. Her eyes widened. High up on the vertical wall of the fortress there stood a little skitty perched precariously on a brick.

Flow knocked Crag with one paw. "What are you waiting for? Let's get over there!"

"We should get help!" Crag pointed out, his pitch high.

"No time for that, she could fall! Just go," Flow ordered. She gave a quick jolt.

"Going!" Crag obeyed, his pitch even higher.

In the next moment, Crag and Flow hovered beside the skitty with great caution. The feline turned her head away and visibly pressed harder against the fortress wall, as if repulsed by her would-be rescuers.

"H-hey, skitty," Crag stammered, "We're with the guild and we're here to get you down. It's dangerous up here."

"Leave me alone!" the skitty hissed. Crag recoiled from the hostility.

"Flow, a little help here?" Crag pleaded.

"Crag and I just want to help," the emolga said in a soft, calm tone. Your mom told us that you ran off, very upset. Can you tell us why?"

A moment of silence followed before the skitty replied, "You really want to know what she did? I'll tell you!" The little feline promptly burst out:

"I found out what Mom's been doing to get money after Dad passed away. She...she's being paid to go out on dates and keep beds warm! Everyone makes fun of me now. I hate her for it!"

"Oh. Oh dear. Um...she didn't seem to be that type of-" Crag started, but Flow quickly knocked him.

"Zip it, Crag. You're not helping," she warned.

"Zipping it!"

Flow paused for a moment as she looked on at the visibly distraught skitty.

"It's just you and your mother now, isn't it?" Flow asked. "Is that all the family you have?"

"Yeah, but don't act like you care! You're just up here because you're with the Guild," the skitty accused. "You just want to take me back to my mom and get on with your day. Well, you can forget it!"

Flow narrowed her gaze at the skitty. "Your mom pleaded for us to help find you because she loves you. The last thing she would want is to lose you...especially like this."

The skitty's eyes began to well up with tears.

"Please come down with us," Flow went on, "Go back to your mom and work things out. Hurting you is the last thing she would ever want."

"...I..." The upsurge of anguish in the skitty's heart and mind stilled her words. She only stood there.

_CRACK!_

The ancient weathered stone she stood upon suddenly gave way. She shrieked, digging her claws into the the jagged chunk that remained.

"Hang on!" Crag shot towards the wall and rose up beneath the skitty, using his magnets to scoop her away from the dangerous foothold.

"Crag, get down to the front gate!" she ordered. She leapt off of him to glide towards said gate.

"Going!" Crag confirmed, but he also warned, "The landing's going to be rough!"

The magnemite shot around the fortress with the skitty in a firm grip, losing altitude all the while from the additional weight he carried. Flow coasted not too far behind. They approached the solid ground of the guild hall's front gate. As Crag controlled his descent as best as he could for the emergency landing, he and Flow quickly noticed that the delcatty from before and some of the guild members on guard were waiting right by the gate.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed the delcatty.

Crag dropped onto the stony ground. He held up his magnets to keep the skitty safe as he rolled forward and stopped upon his top screw. As soon as he came to a complete stop, the skitty slipped off of him. Flow landed beside him and crumpled towards the ground, exhausted. The skitty, however, landed safely on her feet, right before shooting towards her mother with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Mom!"

"My girl!"

Mother and daughter rushed towards each other. As they converged to one spot, the skitty leapt into her mother's embrace, causing the older feline to topple backward and hug close her child.

"You foolish, stupid little girl. What you did was just awful!" the delcatty cried.

"What you're doing is awful too!" the skitty cried back.

"I just don't want us out on the streets. Please understand."

"They make fun of us, mom! You need a new job!"

The delcatty rolled over to stand up again and placed the skitty back on her feet. She licked away her daughter's tears and wiped away her own. "We should talk about this over lunch. Promise. But there's something we have to do first."

The delcatty walked over to Flow and Crag with the skitty closely following behind. Team Ironwoods' long day of labor had finally taken its toll. They had yet to move from where they landed. As soon as they noticed the cat family's approach, they hastily sprung back up from the ground. Flow stood tall and Crag floated close beside her.

"Thank you very much for what you've done today," the delcatty told them. She prodded her daughter with a paw.

"Y-yes! Thank you," the skitty added.

"Just doing our job, Ma'am!" Crag chirped. He spun his magnets at the sides happily.

"It's nothing," Flow added modestly.

"I hope Team Ironwoods gets to stay in this city," the delcatty added, "I can already tell it'll be much better off."

Flow and Crag's eyes both widened as the delcatty refreshed their memory.

"Oh, did you two forget?" The delcatty teased, "Well, I best not hold you up any longer. The guildmaster must have a lot to talk to you about, I'm sure. So long, and thanks again! Come along, my girl."

The delcatty and skitty both headed back towards the city. "Thank you again!" The skitty called back, as they disappeared into the city streets.

Crag and Flow turned to each other. "Should we have asked her to sign the report card?" Crag asked.

"I have a feeling the guildmaster already knows," Flow answered, as she caught something out of the corner of her eye.

"What?"

"Look at the gate."

Crag turned. "Ack!" 

Guildmaster Svelte had just emerged from the gate and slithered rapidly towards Team Ironwoods straight past the guards. Her expression was sterner than ever. The speed at which she approached instilled a bit a fear into the emolga and magnemite.

"Team Ironwoods!" She sharply called to them. The commanding tone in her voice froze them in place. She towered over them..

"G-Guildmaster Svelte! So nice to see you in p-" Crag began, but Svelte cut him off.

"Silence," the serperior ordered. "The two of you, come to my office. _Now._"

Flow and Crag nervously stood together in Svelte's office. Both of them were a mess. The guildmaster had demanded to see the report card and now quietly scrutinized it while laying it flat on her desk. She tracked each line of the report with the tip of her vine. Once she finished, she slid it to the side. Her gaze fell upon the emolga and magnemite as she composed her thoughts.

"Team Ironwoods...normally your test would still be ongoing but recent events required me to intervene. The report card isn't so important now as what just happened outside our walls. Your actions, while commendable, bring up a serious question:

"Why didn't you request the guild's aid?"

Crag restrained himself from a fit of panic. "Um, Guildmaster, you see-"

"There's hesitance in your voice. I don't like that. Maybe you don't fully grasp the problem here," Svelte interrupted, "Your team was never meant, for your test, to handle responsibilities beyond what's appropriate for even the starting rank. Neither of you have been trained to handle such dangerous work. The chance of failure was high. Why should I trust either of you to work for the guild if you're prone to such rash decision-making?"

Crag trembled in place. Svelte's admonishing shredded his assertiveness. Now he was afraid to say anything. However, Flow remained unphased by such verbal lashing.

"Guildmaster," she stated coolly, "It wasn't rash at all."

"Come again?" Svelte raised her voice, noticeably provoked.

"The delcatty came to us for help because everyone else on patrol dismissed her. We were the only ones who bothered to go check. Her daughter was already stuck on the wall, on a piece of stone that was ready to break off, and did. If we had taken the time to get someone else to help, she could've died by the time that help arrived."

Flow peered with defiance up to the guildmaster. "We did everything you asked of us, and then some. We worked hard! If this day was done over again, Crag and I wouldn't do it any differently. _We were doing our job._"

Crag's eye dashed from Flow to Svelte and back. His trembling intensified, fearful that the two of them were about to be rejected. For a prolonged moment, the emolga and serperior stared at each other, not moving a muscle.

Finally, Svelte extended a vine. "Flow, hand me your neckerchief."

Crag started to whimper as he tilted down and drooped his magnets. Flow sighed as she untied her stained, white neckerchief and put it into the looped grip of Svelte's vine. The guildmaster promptly pulled it away.

"Flow, Crag...there are two things that I want you to do. The first thing is to leave my office and head for the bath house to clean yourselves up."

"Y-yes, guildmaster," Crag stammered.

Flow nodded. She relaxed her arms, as if accepting this newest turn of events.

"The second thing I want you to do is return to my office so I can give your team a more appropriate neckerchief."

Crag and Flow froze. Flow blinked slowly with surprise. Crag's magnets shot right back up, his body surging with excitement.

"We will discuss your team's future in the Land's End province once you return. There's much to discuss and for the both of you to learn. For now, the two of you are dismissed. Take your time washing off. You both need it."

"Yes, Guildmaster!" Crag acknowledged. He flew out of the office in a hurry. "Come on, Flow," he then called out, "Let's get that bath you wanted!"

Flow let out a prolonged sigh. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Flow left Svelte's office. She rejoined Crag back in the main lobby, just below the giant timepiece. The magnemite circled around the emolga, flapping his magnets with abundant jubilation.

"Oh my god I can't believe we did it but we did it! Yes! Yes!" Crag exclaimed.

"I'll be right behind you, Crag," Flow said softly.

"Hmm? Flow, what's wrong? You ought to be way more excited for this than you are!"

"Well...it's nice that I get to settle down now," Flow said, "It's just going to take more time to adjust. I'm starting a whole new life here, you know?"

"Oh, of course! I'll be more than happy to help you fit right in. I'm sure the guild will help too," Crag assured.

The two of them headed off into the streets. Crag hummed to himself, happier than he ever was. Flow, however, thought back to the life she left behind. She had a feeling she wasn't going back to those woods anytime soon, not after all that she had lost.

_Mom, Dad...I'll remember to visit you sometime, _she thought, _once I get my act together. _


End file.
